


Stage Two

by Hedgi



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Ficlet, Gen, Not a barry friendly fic, all aboard the pain train, introspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-23
Updated: 2016-11-23
Packaged: 2018-09-01 16:22:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8630860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hedgi/pseuds/Hedgi
Summary: Anger is the second Stage of Grief. Cisco thought he was past it. He was wrong.introspective reaction fic to 3.07, spoilers





	

He didn’t know what to feel for so long. They said that was normal. Grief, anger at the universe, guilt, confusion, denial, denial, denial. Dante was dead and some part of him screamed there was someone to blame. So he blamed. Dante for driving late at night, the panicking driver who’d skidded on ice and caused the crash, blamed himself for not being there, Barry for refusing to try. They could run back one day. They had before. One day. One. Barry had done it twice, it had saved Iris, Joe, Felicity, himself, everyone. And what had gone wrong because of one day? ( _Dante had almost lost his hands, but he’d been alive to use them. Cisco was willing to take a few punches if it meant having his brother back)._

Healing—to call it slow was wrong. Most days it hardly felt like healing at all. Just breathing, focusing on this problem, then the next, then the next, anything to stay busy. It didn’t help that he dreamed, blue tinted. In them, he could almost feel Dante’s arms around him, a hug, hear words he was sure he’d never heard Dante say, things he was sure he’d never said. Things he wished he had. Things like, “We haven't been close in a long time” and “I want things to change.” He had thought they were only tattered shreds of timeline shattered when Zoom had tried to tear the multiverse down, maybe bits and pieces left over from Reverb’s life, Rupture’s.

Now, he knew. The healing fell away like blood soaked gauze, the open wound stinging in the air. Dante had been alive. Dante had been alive and whole and home. And Barry had stolen that for a handful of weeks with his parents. Logically, Cisco knew he’d have been tempted to do the same, sacrifice for just one more conversation with his brother. Logically, he knew Barry hard been hurting. But Logic didn’t matter, not here in the heart of a building where logic and promises had failed so many lives. Where Barry had failed so many.

Cisco’s temper had always been a hot one, slow to boil but when it did—but now he felt like ice, numb, furious. He wanted to throw Barry across the room like he’d seen Reverb do. Like he’d tried to stop Reverb from doing. He wanted to draw back a fist like a schoolyard fight and drive it into his eye, like Rory had done to him on the twice-lived day thanks to Barry’s time travel. He thought his hands must be shaking, but they weren’t, as he jabbed a finger into Barry’s chest. _You killed Dante._ He slammed his hand at Barry’s ribcage. Over his heart. Where a bullet had pierced Eddie, Bette. Where a knife had torn through Nora. Where a speedster’s hand had ripped through his own chest. Over and over and over in dreams just as insistent as the ones with Dante’s face in them. This time, Cisco did not flinch, did not waver, did not crumple.

This time, he was the one to walk away, and leave stunned silence behind.

**Author's Note:**

> I side 100% with Cisco on this and will forever.


End file.
